Hunter is the fastest leveling class in Vanilla and one of the most forgiving, because your pet holds the mob while you shoot it from across the screen.
Leveling spec: Beast Mastery
Put your points into Beast Mastery. It makes your pet tougher and hit harder. You stand back, the pet tanks, you shoot.
The pet
Your pet matters more than your talents while leveling.
- For damage, a cat. Cats hit fast and hard and hold threat well enough at your level.
- For safety, a boar or a bear. Slower kills, but the pet survives bad pulls, which matters when you are learning.
- Broken Tooth, a rare cat in the Badlands, has the fastest attack speed of any tameable cat. Tame it if you want a long-term damage pet.
Keep your pet fed. Happiness drives its damage, and an unhappy pet does noticeably less. Feed it the food type it likes, and check loyalty so you do not lose training.
Shots
You do not press a shot every global cooldown. Auto Shot fires on its own timer, and you weave Aimed Shot or Multi-Shot between those swings without clipping the auto. Miss the weave and you lose a chunk of your damage.
At 60
Hunters raid as Survival or Marksmanship, often carrying the Nightfall debuff or Trueshot Aura for the group. You also bring specific hunter jobs: Tranquilizing Shot to remove boss frenzies, kiting, and pulling. Bring your own ammo and a stack of pet food to every raid.
One mistake to avoid
Do not melee. Hunters have a minimum range, and standing in melee turns off your ranged shots. If a mob reaches you, use a slow or a trap and step back, do not trade blows.